#Former Contestants

[hasdrubal-gisco]

so many covers of espresso by sabrina carpenter get it wrong because she's a 5'0" sex pest and the girls making covers are normal height and on 200mg/d of sertraline

[norsesuggestions]

That is not how eurovision popularity works....

Listening to a usa based podcast talking about eurovision and the host was like:

"It is lucky usa do not compete in eurovision because with our pop - culture dominance we would win everytime"

Oh honey..... that is NOT how getting high scores in eurovision works. You would share last place with UK, every single time. LITERALLY

[galacticrain]

Au I might as well post before the finale, Cobs uses the contestants data to make his new meeple-ified contestants

[arabela25]

Past Eurovision artists from Ukraine perform during the Flag Parade

Go_A (ESC 2021)

Jamala (ESC 2016)

Tina Karol (ESC 2006)

Verka Serduchka (ESC 2007)

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2004 - Number 19 - Toše Proeski - "Далеку од мене"

It's time for Macedonia's tragic hero. Toše Proeski was a very big deal. Across the whole of the Balkans, his name and his voice were household names. A child star, since the beginning of the 21st century his reputation had been growing to major proportions and his performances were huge. He even had a superhero comic book character named for him. Super Toše fought evil to the delight of Balkan comic fans.

He should have been at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest. He won Beovision to represent Serbia and Montenegro, however owing to the massive number of entries that forced the EBU to finally start holding semi-finals, Serbia and Toše had to wait another year.

In 2004, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were also back (having been relegated in 2003), so fate allowed Toše to represent his native country. Given his status, Skopjefest made way for a song selection final in which he would sing all eight songs. It's a strong final - many of the songs are worthy.

Далеку од мене (Daleku od mene/Far Away from Me) is by Ognen Nedelkovski and Sanel Suljanović. Of these two, Ognen has the biggest history with both Macedonian Eurovision potentials as well as Toše himself. He wrote Солзи прават златен прстен (Solzi pravat zlaten prsten/Tears are Making a Golden Ring) which finished 3rd for Toše at Skopjefest in 2000. He'd go on to write many songs for Macedonian selection finals over the next ten years.

The song itself is a driving EDM power-ballad that's all about Toše's voice showing just what it can do. It starts off with big drum hits, and squelchy synth bass races off daring him to keep up. This is full-on, high power singing with barely room to breathe. He's missing his love so much that the mountain tops will know by the end of the song. There's even room for a big held note that carries on through the key change in the bridge. That's just showing off. Listen to that crowd at the end.

It nearly became Macedonia's song for the year - just missing out and ending up the runner up. The winner was far and away the favourite, but this was clear in second place too. In the end of course, Toše did get to Eurovision with the winning song.

Just three short years after this competition, he was dead. His fame had only increased, with massive concerts in Skopje at one of which the huge crowd refused to leave. He gave the profits from his last concert to USAID. He died in a road accident just eleven days after that last concert. Macedonia held a national day of mourning, gave him a state funeral and named Skopje's major stadium after him. Toše was huge and only ever shining more brightly when he tragically taken from the country and people who loved him.

[9w1ft]

imagine paying money to be taught that tom hiddleston dated taylor swift 😆

i bet the final exam questions are cursed

[takethistoyourstardust]

i knew the contestant from last season would make it to top 4 and i was pretty sure the rugby player would also. but if you had asked me about the other two i would NOT have said the YouTuber and the actor.

[simikae]

always correct to give some of your favorite ocs pokemon assignments btw

[freewayshark]

I was disappointed with Last One Standing’s rule that they can’t share tools but then when it was explained that they can steal each other’s tools and someone IMMEDIATELY stole Jeff’s rope……Yeah I’m here for that actually

[pierswife]

*listening to Unknown Mother Goose on repeat* I'm normal--

[returquoise]

*squints at Croatia's translated lyrics* is that a Crocodile Gena reference?

[random2908]

So the funniest thing happened today. We interviewed a woman for an entry-level scientist position, and I was one of the interviewers who was assigned to get half an hour with her.

Aside from the fact that she had a PhD in, generally speaking, the correct subfield, she was entirely unqualified for the job. But, having that PhD counts for a lot, and we all thought she seemed like a really tenacious person who could learn the ropes of what we were doing.

You know what she was extremely qualified for, though? An entry-level scientist position at my previous company. Like, they would kill to get someone with her exact background--someone who'd done a PhD under her PhD advisor and a postdoc under her postdoc advisor (completely unrelated work, both relevant to my previous company's work in entirely different ways).

But she wasn't applying there, she told me, because she'd looked at their linkdin page and they didn't have any women on the tech staff.

[inkmyth]

sigh.

[wabblebees]

Will Wood & the Tapeworms: Hand Me My Shovel (Live)

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2004 - Number 10 - Toše Proeski - "Ангели си ти"/"Life"

Toše is back, this time with the song that won the 2004 Macedonian selection and went to Eurovision.

Ангели си ти (Angeli si ti/You're an Angel) is the original name for a song that walked the national final, winning the jury, the televote and in a one-off (and I love this) Toše himself picked it as his favourite. His opinion made up a third of the result. If you're going to have a song selection final, this feels like an honest way to go about it. The artist you've selected has to have their judgement respected.

For Eurovision it was deemed necessary for an English version to be produced, and it was. Except the English lyrics bear almost no relation at all to the Macedonian original. The Macedonian version is a hymn of devotion to a loved one. It's a deeply felt song filled with heartfelt attachment and undertakings to do absolutely anything for the person held in affection. There's a sense that the connection may be slipping or this person may even be an opportunity that has not been grasped. That sense is the launchpad for the English version.

Life is about seizing the moment, a carpe diem of a song with some odd choreography involving black-clad dancers holding back the fully white-clad Toše, who is desperate to break free. He needs to grab and hold onto his own path through life rather than follow someone else's. No mention of love. No mention of angel's worthy of his full and eternal attention.

It's still a great song, although perhaps lacking something of the purity of the original. It still was enough to get through the first ever Eurovision semi-final. Just. Toše demonstrated his credentials by qualifying his country for the grand final when twelve others didn't make it.

In the final he finished fourteenth with 47 points, perhaps eclipsed by the song that followed him in the running order from neighbours and national name disputers Greece. This was Macedonia's best ever finish at Eurovision as an independent nation to this point. This was his platform to launch an already big musical career to the superstardom level. Toše may not be mentioned in the same breath as Abba, Celine Dion and Måneskin, but at the time of his death, he was getting there. He was huge not on only in Macedonia but across the Balkans. I've linked his final concert below - he died eleven days after this. He is greatly missed.

[ayoyoungg]

the funniest thing about peak time is determining whether the group is nugu because of money/reseources/management or because the music sucks 🙃